Cincinnati Reds 2016 Draft: Rounds 21-30

The 2016 Major League Baseball draft, Day Three, is about to kick off. Today will include Rounds 11-40 and will be updated throughout the day as the Cincinnati Reds make each pick with as much information as I’m able to track down. It’s going to be hectic, and with 30 rounds it’s tougher to keep up with than yesterday. The picks will be added quickly and I will do my best to update things throughout the day. There will be three different articles today, one for each set of 10 rounds on the final day. If you’re looking for all kinds of information on the draft, you can check out all of the draft coverage we’ve provided here.

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Cincinnati Reds Round 21: LHP Andrew Wright

Height: 6′ 5″ | Weight: 225 lbs. | Born: June 27, 1995 | B/T: R/L

The Reds went to USC to draft seldom used reliever Andrew Wright. The left hander managed just 18.0 total innings in two seasons with the Trojans where he walked more batters than he struck out. He also saw very limited action in the field in his freshman and sophomore seasons. With limited action on the mound there’s not much scouting information out there to find. The best I was able to track down was that he was hitting 90 MPH while he was a high school senior, which was three years ago.

Year

ERA

IP

H

HR

BB

K

WHIP

2015

0.00

3.2

2

0

3

5

1.36

2016

8.16

14.1

15

0

17

11

2.23

Cincinnati Reds Round 22: RHP Aaron Quillen

Height: 6′ 2″ | Weight: 205 lbs. | Born: December 19, 1993 | B/T: R/R

Aaron Quillen has been to three different schools since leaving high school. He’s played the last two years at Belmont, but spent the 2014 season at Walters State Community College and 2013 at Tennessee. He’s racked up the strikeouts in the last three seasons at high rate, particularly in the 2016 season as a senior. Despite that he’s struggled to keep low ERA’s. As of right now I’ve been unable to track down any scouting information on him.

Year

ERA

IP

H

HR

BB

K

WHIP

2013

6.79

51.2

75

4

16

30

1.76

2014

3.32

84.0

74

6

26

85

1.19

2015

4.44

73.0

73

8

24

75

1.33

2016

4.61

97.2

97

9

38

118

1.38

Cincinnati Reds Round 23: SS Manny Cruz

Height: 5′ 11″ | Weight: 170 lbs. | Born: August 29, 1995 | B/T: R/R

Manny Cruz showed improvement each of his three seasons at Southern New Hampshire. His biggest improvement came as a junior when he hit .373 and walked 50% more often than he struck out, all while cutting his strikeout rate for the third straight year and hitting for more power than he ever had before.

Year

AB

2B

3B

HR

SB

BB

K

AVG

OBP

SLG

2014

209

12

3

0

21

33

54

.292

.395

.378

2015

170

5

2

3

12

22

36

.312

.384

.418

2016

212

14

3

3

8

44

30

.373

.487

.509

Cincinnati Reds Round 24: 1B Bruce Yari

Height: 6′ 3″ | Weight: 224 lbs. | Born: December 9, 1994 | B/T: L/L

The Reds went to the University of British Columbia to pick up first baseman Bruce Yari. He’s hit well in each of his three seasons there with an average between .348 and .368 in his time there. his power output has improved each season by a small amount and his plate discipline numbers have also seen improvement. In the 2016 season he walked twice as often as he struck out, a big step forward from where he had been previously in his career.

Player

AB

2B

3B

HR

BB

K

SB

AVG

OBP

SLG

2014

177

10

3

2

16

25

1

.356

.415

.480

2015

218

12

3

6

25

28

3

.349

.420

.514

2016

220

13

5

5

40

20

14

.368

.466

.541

Cincinnati Reds Round 25: 2B Colby Wright

Height: 6′ 2″ | Weight: 195 lbs. | Born: April 11, 1994

The Cincinnati Reds took Kansas second baseman Colby Wright in the 25th round. He put together a strong senior season after a bit of a letdown junior campaign. He’s always been a quality on-base guy with the Jayhawks, but it was his power output as a senior that really pushed things forward. He had a career high in doubles, triples and home runs. The home run output was the big step forward after hitting just one home run in the first three years he smashed six of them as a senior. In his last three seasons he also walked more than he struck out in each season.

From a scouting perspective he shows a good plate approach and he’s got a swing that’s more contact oriented without much power, even though he did show a lot more power in 2016. He doesn’t stick out defensively up the middle, but has enough arm to play at third base if he moves into a utility role in the future.

Year

AB

2B

3B

HR

SB

BB

K

AVG

OBP

SLG

2013

9

1

0

0

1

1

3

.222

.364

.333

2014

156

11

1

1

1

23

19

.314

.415

.417

2015

129

6

1

0

4

21

17

.264

.435

.326

2016

176

13

4

6

6

24

21

.341

.466

.563

Cincinnati Reds Round 26: RHP Patrick Riehl

Height: 6′ 5″ | Weight: 230 lbs. | Born: May 19, 1994 | B/T: R/R

It’s been an interesting road to being drafted for Mars Hill reliever Patrick Riehl. He may have been drafted in 2014 but developed a serious blood clot issue that left him in the hospital for eight days and caused massive swelling in his arm. It led to surgery and he missed all of 2014 before returning to the mound in 2015. He’s reportedly been in the low 90’s with his fastball.

Year

ERA

IP

H

HR

BB

K

WHIP

2016

6.57

24.2

29

5

15

34

1.78

Cincinnati Reds Round 27: LHP Dion Henderson

Height: 6′ 4″ | Weight: 203 lbs. | Born: June 3, 1997 | B/T: L/L

The Reds took high school left hander Dion Henderson in the 27th round. He’s a projectable high schooler with good size. His fastball works in the 89-91 MPH range and touches a little bit higher. There may be more room in there for him to add velocity as well. He throws a slow curveball in the low 70’s that shows some potential and he’s also showing a change up, but it’s behind his other two pitches at this point.

Cincinnati Reds Round 28: C Cooper Johnson

Height: 6′ 0″ | Weight: 205 lbs. | Born: April 25, 1998 | B/T: R/R

This is another spot in the draft where the Cincinnati Reds could spend some money that they may have saved in the first 10 rounds of the draft. Cooper Johnson was ranked as the 76th best prospect in the draft by Baseball America – the fact that he dropped this far likely suggest he’s going to be a very tough sign.

From a scouting perspective he’s seen as more of a defensive first player than a hitter. He’s a strong receiver who is quite athletic behind the plate who blocks and receives well beyond his years. He also show off an above-average to plus arm behind the plate. At the plate there are a lot of questions. His pitch recognition skills aren’t strong, which is surprising for a catcher. There are also questions about how much power he will ever hit for. He’s got the size and strength to hit for a little bit of power, but his swing isn’t the smoothest and his bat speed is average at best.

Cincinnati Reds Round 29: OF Daniel Sweet

Height: 6′ 1″ | Weight: 195 lbs. | Born: December 28, 1993 | B/T: S/R

Dallas Baptist outfielder Daniel Sweet began his college career at Polk State in the Sun Coast Conference, playing there for two years. He hit well there before transferring to Dallas Baptist. His junior year wasn’t too impressive but he took strides forward in 2016 as a senior, boosting his numbers across the board. He would walk more than he struck out, hit .308 ans post an on-base percentage of .445. This is the third time he’s been drafted. The Reds originally took him out of high school in 2012 with their 23rd round pick. The Texas Rangers then took him in the 2014 draft in the 25th round. He’s a switch hitter

Year

AB

2B

3B

HR

SB

BB

K

AVG

OBP

SLG

2013

179

7

5

1

30

29

29

.307

.436

.419

2014

209

13

5

3

30

42

44

.411

.525

.565

2015

102

3

2

1

4

11

24

.265

.356

.363

2016

195

6

4

2

11

40

39

.308

.445

.410

Cincinnati Reds Round 30: 1B Vincent Byrd

Height: 6′ 7″ | Weight: 240 lbs. | Born: October 8, 1997 | B/T: L/R

Long Beach Community College first baseman Vincent Byrd is about as physically imposing as you are going to see on a baseball field. He’s listed at 6′ 7″ and 240 lbs and he’s still just 18-years-old. There’s not much information on him, but at that size, you’ve got to imagine there’s plenty of power potential in there.

About The Author

Doug Gray is the owner and operator of this website and has been running it since 2006 in one variation or another. You can follow him on twitter @dougdirt24, or follow the site on Facebook. and Youtube.

5 Responses

So when you pick someone like Wright who was barely used, is it one of those see if you catch lightning in the bottle or is it you expect nothing out of it but doing it as a favor to someone? Piazza worked out well as a favor.

Seems like more pitchers with injuries and/or limited use than usual. I could be wrong. I’m wondering if the club is taking fliers on several of these potentially big arms with just that objective (lightning in a bottle). Seems like a strategy for bullpen development.